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Articles

The relation between antioxidants and memory performance in the old and very old.

Author

Perrig WJ, Perrig P, Stahelin HB

Date

6/1997

Journal

J Am Geriatr Soc

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Aging processes, and among them brain aging, are thought
to be associated with free radical action. It is hypothesized that
plasma antioxidant vitamin levels correlate with cognitive
performance in healthy older subjects. DESIGN: Longitudinal and cross-
sectional comparisons. SETTING: The city of Basle, considered
representative of the older urban population in Switzerland.
PARTICIPANTS: A total of 442 subjects aged 65 to 94 years (mean: 75
years; 312 male, 132 female) was selected from a random sample.
MEASUREMENTS: In 1993, participants were tested for memory, and
plasma vitamin levels were measured for the three antioxidants alpha-
tocopherol, ascorbic acid, and beta-carotene. These vitamin
parameters, measured previously in 1971 in the same sample, were
integrated in our analyses. In addition, plasma cholesterol,
ferritin, and systolic blood pressure were taken into account. Memory
variables were priming, working-memory, free recall, recognition and
the WAIS-R vocabulary test (semantic memory). RESULTS: Correlations
showed significant stability of the plasma antioxidants over the time
lag of 22 years (alpha-tocopherol: r = .47, P < or = .001; beta-
carotene: r = .43, P < .001; ascorbic acid: r = .22, P < .001). Free
recall, recognition, and vocabulary (but not priming and working-
memory) correlated significantly with ascorbic acid and beta-carotene
in the cross-sectional 1993 data as well as in the longitudinal 1971-
1993 analysis. These two antioxidants remained significant
predictors, especially of semantic memory, after controlling for
possible confounding variables like age, education, and gender using
multiple regression analyses and ANOVAs. CONCLUSION: Among people
aged 65 and older, higher ascorbic acid and beta-carotene plasma
level are associated with better memory performance. These results
indicate the important role played by antioxidants in brain aging and
may have implications for prevention of progressive cognitive
impairments.